S2E4: Celtics Coaching Staff – a Product of Portland

The relationships on the Boston Celtics’ coaching staff run deep - like, back to middle school and high school deep. Ime Udoka, Damon Stoudamire, Ben Sullivan and Aaron Miles all hail from Portland, Oregon, and in this episode, they turn back the clock to recall the stories of how they all first met, and to discuss how they all wound up in Boston together and coaching the Celtics.

0:50 – Marc opens up a conversation with Ime Udoka and Damon Stoudamire about growing up in Portland and the Portland hoops community

4:15 – Udoka explains why chose to bring in many of his friends from Portland to be members of his very first coaching staff

6:25 – Stoudamire explains his decision to leave his head coaching job at Pacific and join Udoka’s staff in Boston

10:40 – Udoka and Stoudamire recall some of their interactions from back in the day, including Stoudamire beating Udoka’s brother in a nationally-televised game that Mike Breen announced

19:35 – Udoka and Stoudamire begin to discuss other Portland natives who are on the coaching staff, including Aaron Miles and Ben Sullivan

23:10 – Udoka recalls the story of how he god Sullivan his first NBA job, with the Spurs

26:00 – Udoka explains why he pursued specific coaches to be a part of his staff, and what his pitch was to each as to why they should leave their previous teams to join him

31:50 – Aaron Miles and Ben Sullivan explain what made them leave their previous jobs to join Udoka in Boston

37:50 – Miles and Sullivan discuss the importance of being on a coaching staff with people they know and trust

40:00 – The group comments on how so much basketball talent comes out of such a small market like Portland

44:45 – Miles remembers watching Udoka lose the state championship at Jefferson High, and then winning it for Jefferson High just a handful of years later

50:45 – Sullivan discusses playing basketball at three different high schools and how he is the guy who changed the game for big men around the world

57:15 – Miles dives into the inspiration he and his peers got from guys like Terrell Brandon and Damon Stoudamire back in the day

1:00:30 – Miles, a former teammate of Udoka’s in the D-League, comments on the difference between coaching with Udoka and playing with Udoka

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